In general, shipping containers, which are box-shaped transport equipment having a large capacity, in which cargo can be loaded, are widely used to load cargo in the field of shipment of goods, and can be fabricated according to predetermined standards in order to be used in combination with one or more transportation means.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional standardized container 1 is guided and supported by a container holder 2 installed in a cargo ship, and then, stacked with other containers to transport huge amounts of cargo.
The container holder 2 divides the interior of a ship into units having a size corresponding to standardized containers 1, and includes a barrier rib 3 guiding a container 1 so that a plurality of containers 1 can be stacked and fixed in the ship, and division plates 4 installed on the barrier rib 3 and located between the containers 1 to prevent the containers 1 from moving from a predetermined arrangement.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1, the container 1 is descended from an upper portion of the container holder 2 while being guided between the barrier rib 3 and the division plates 4, and then, is stacked on the bottom 5 of the ship.
The conventional container 1 is a unit for loading and unloading operations performed by conveying equipment such as a crane (not shown), and a unit of transportation using container vehicles (not shown). Therefore, the container 1 is very useful in the field of transportation of a huge amount of goods using ships and vehicles.
However, the conventional container 1 is standardized in length (L) (about 12.19 m), width (W) (about 2.43 m), and height (H) (about 2.59 m) for general goods, and thus, is not suitable for vehicles, which generally have lengths of 5 m or less, widths of 2.4 m or less, and heights of 1.7 m or less.
Therefore, in order to transport a large amount of vehicles using ships, an additional vehicle transporting ship (not shown) including multi-layered parking regions, in which a huge amount of vehicles can be parked at the same time, is used.
Referring to FIG. 2, in order to transport the small number of vehicles 6 such as a few used cars, the vehicles 6 are loaded in a length direction of the container 1 being of the conventional standard, and vehicle racks 7 can be installed for utilizing empty upper space in the container 1.
That is, as shown in FIG. 3, when the vehicles 6 are transported using the conventional container 1, dead space (D) is generated in the container 1, and thus, the number of vehicles 6 that can be loaded in the same space is reduced. In particular, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, if the vehicle 6 is loaded on the vehicle rack 7 in the conventional container 1, it is difficult to install and release the vehicle rack 7 inside the container 1. In addition, it is also difficult to load and draw the vehicle 6 onto/from the installed vehicle rack 7, and thus, it takes a long time to handle the vehicles 6 and a lot of operating workers are required. Moreover, the operating worker may be accidentally hit by the vehicle 6 during the operation, or the vehicle 6 and inner wall of the container 1 may collide with each other so that the vehicles 6 may become scratched.
In addition, during moving of the container 1, in which the vehicles 6 are loaded, the vehicles 6 may be damaged by the movement of the container 1. During transporting of the container 1 in the ship, it is difficult to support the vehicles 6, and thus, the vehicles 6 may be damaged by rolling of the ship. Therefore, the container 1 cannot be applied to transport new cars, and it is mainly used to transport used cars.
Meanwhile, the transportation of a huge amount of vehicles using the vehicle transporting ship has some problems. For example, since the conventional container 1 that is widely distributed cannot be used, an expensive vehicle transporting ship must be used, and thus, costs for transporting vehicles and costs for using the ship are high. In addition, since the shipping schedule is limited, it is not suitable for transporting a small number of vehicles. Even if the vehicles 6 are parked as close to each other as possible by skilled parking workers, a lot of dead space is generated above the vehicles 6. In addition, wasted space generated due to poles, vehicles parked at corners, or a structure of the parking lot, and a lot of skilled workers and time are required to load the vehicles in the vehicle transporting ship.
Also, prior to loading the vehicles into the vehicle transporting ship, the vehicles must stand-by in a vast space because there is no structure for stacking the vehicles. Therefore, a vast space for parking the stand-by vehicles is required when the vehicles are shipped/unshipped into/from the vehicle transporting ship.